Is This the Worst Soccer Interview Ever?

New York TV station, Fox 5, recently conducted a one-on-one interview with Thierry Henry, and it has to be one of the worst soccer interviews you’ll probably ever see.

Hosts Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly begin the train wreck by telling Henry that he had just won the World Cup. And the interview seems to get worse from there with Scotto seemingly slowing down her words for Henry to understand her despite the fact that Henry speaks and understands English incredibly well.

The hosts of the “Good Day New York” TV show then make even more fools of themselves by talking about how Americans love “big scores” and “blowouts,” while trying to make a joke that a 3-0 scoreline is a “blowout” in soccer.

Scotto then ad libs and starts talking about the “horns” (i.e. vuvuzelas).

It’s obvious that Scotto and Kelly didn’t do their homework before interviewing Henry. To have one of the biggest soccer stars in the world on your show but then not even give him the courtesy of asking intelligent questions is a travesty. Yes, the TV show is a morning program, which is typically the bottom of the barrel when it comes to television shows. But still, you would have expected Henry to be treated with a little more dignity and respect than this horrible interview.

Fair play to Henry for remaining calm during the interview and answering the questions with a humility that a lot of other sports stars wouldn’t have been able to carry.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

You send someone on a press tour, and programs people actually watch agree to have him on, you do it. You hope that a professional broadcaster will be prepared – there is not a shadow of a doubt that it was the presenters who failed at their jobs. Henry acquitted himself admirably under the circumstances, which is a WIN for him and NYRB.

Had media relations tried placing Henry on an MTV hip-hop program or right-wing talk radio, THAT would have been a fail. The only ones who really lost here were Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly, who now have one more piece of tape that will prevent them from getting better jobs.

Scotto, Kelly and producers of the show played to the soccer bashers, making Henry look like a foreigner playing a foreign sport. Of course, they’ve got nothing to lose playing it that way to their demographic.

NYRB/MLS (whose offices are practically around the corner) are responsible for booking him, and giving media contacts the detailed information they need. If media contacts have no interest in reading it, or not enough respect to get it right, Henry shouldn’t be there.

Jamie Foxx would have treated Henry with respect – him and his hip hop crowd.

Wow. That was awful. Kelly kept on trying to make dumb jokes, and Scotto was just clueless. No offense to them, but this was terrible. Plus they kept on showing the same video in the background. Yikes.

Perfect example of why stereotypical American view of the game comes up.

Holy Moses! That was awful! That show is always featured on the Soup for the stupid crap they come out with. I mean the interview was bad enough but they kept on showing the clip from what was pretty much Henry’s lowest point in his career. His handball(s) against Ireland!! There’s literally hundred’s of clips they could have shown and they show that, not once but like 4 times!!

That show is awful anyway, they are always featured on the Soup. Fair play to Henry for remaining calm in the face of such stupidity. “Is that why you left Europe? Because of the Racism!?”
What made a bad interview worse was the fact they kept on looping the clip of his handball against Ireland, the lowest point in his career!!

Not only did they show the handball celebration from the Irish game, they used the footage from “RTE TWO” (see top right corner), RTE being the National Broadcaster here in Ireland, AND, you can hear the commentator saying it was Handball..
Of all the clips to show, they show that.. Class player, even if he cheated once, I forgive him… Best of luck Thierry 🙂

It really wasn’t that bad. They made some stupid remarks and mistakes but the way the article sounded I thought it would be worse. Seriously though as interviewers they should have done their homework.

it wasn’t so bad considering the type of trash and journalistic integrity that station usually has on. Them interviewing Henry would be like them interviewing an expert on the polar ice-caps or the author of a book on macro-economics. They did their best. Kudos for the racism mention – that’s one feather in their cap.

Hahahaha!!! That just goes to show you that we don’t care about that sissy sport. HAHAHA!!! All you little nerds get butt-hurt about it. Your gay sport will NEVER make it here in America. Take your backward, footsy sport somewhere else, losers.

For someone who doesn’t care, you sure took a lot of time to find this post, watch the video and post your ridiculous thoughts. Go back to whatever backwoods place you’re from and leave the jokes and witty banter to the rest of us.

Hmm, so you like watching sports where 300 lb men pile up on each other wearing tights that would make a pro wrestler cringe? Where the qb takes a snap from the behind of said 300 lb obese dude with his hands all up on this guys junk? surely, that must not be as cool or “manly” as the “fagball” we like to watch

Wow! For a person that clearly dislikes soccer, you sure do spend a significant amount of time on their forums. You bothered to submit a comment, and then returned hours later to see if it recieved a reaction. That’s quite amusing. But if you enjoy our fagball so much, you’re very welcome here.

Anyway, why do you get so emotional over this? Perhaps I could prescribe some fagball for you? I’m not a doctor, but I think some “backward, footsy” sport tomorrow at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2 could remedy your fury.

By the way, did you know that a search for FOXNY, and the FOXNY website doesn’t link to majorleaguesoccertalk.com? It’s OK if you’re a closet fagball lover. We won’t burn you at the stake.

I think i speak for pretty much everyone on this site when i say you are an ignorant, arrogant american twat. ‘Fagball” is the number one game in Europe, Africa, Latin America and quite a lot of Asia aswell. It is only you lot in usa that try to invent your own stupid over-promoted, over sponsored, big money fast food events such as nfl and try and pass it off as sport to the rest of the world. Which is why “fagball” will always be the best game in the world, even if your inbred nation of retards dont like it.

Haha. For a start, football is the most popular sport in the world. Typical Yank attitude that they can’t participate with other countries, especially when they’re not the best – hence baseball, basketball, American football, etc (and The “World” Series is an example of your American ignorance). Second of all, you’re being a bit of a hypocrite if you call football “fagball” – your American version is a just a pussy ripoff of rugby (they wear padding?! HAHA). And finally, why is it that you copied football’s name to use for your sport when you don’t even use your feet?

really bud? ease off. to you american football watcher, this interview would be like “eli manning” getting an interview and being asked how many sacks he has recorded.
and on a side note, soccer has “made it here” in america. why dont you take your gay (grown men rubbing up and down eachother for about an hour) sport and try to make it as world renown as soccer is in the world.

hey just because u suck and can never be good at it, and never been exposed to any part of the world apart from ur street and the next doesnt give u any excuse to put unnecessary comments up,u follow mens sport like what baseball? hahahaha or what Hockey? hahahaah other sports are good too but soccer always been the most popular for ur information ignorant one just becuase u on some street in NYC doesnt agree dont change a thing.

Eli u dumb American idiot,
Tell me one good team sport u americans are good at. All of ur so called manly sports are physical and lame like you. Do u guys know wat it takes to be good in sports like Soccer and Cricket? You guys r only good at sports which involve fighting and wrestling. Skill less duds. Go play ur dumb games with cheargirls u crap.

Everyone is missing the important thing here, it’s a FOX station. They are talking to the Sarah Palin crowd, which means you better dumb it down and then dumb it down some more so the average tea bagger can understand it. Avoid use of big words like soccer and World Cup and use flash cards to make your point.

The local affiliate in a major market is often owned by the network. You may have specific information on the NY affiiliate. Does it show I tend to be a bit progressive? There is a rumor that the whole soccer in America thing is a liberal plot anyway.

The whole racism question is a dead give away for a Fox news scare story. They want the extreme headline of soccer star comes to America to avoid racism. We all know that it has nothing to do with the move, but the typical Fox viewer gets the message that America is good and Europe is bad. There was no need for that question in this interview, as true as it maybe that racism in sports in many parts of the world still is a major problem.

MLS must have partnership with Fox because every DP sits down for multiple interviews with them throughout the year. They don’t ever do their research. It’s embarrassing and insult to the players. I saw this one with Ljungberg. All they asked him was about was fashion advice and his Calvin Klein adverts. That would be okay if he was being interviewed by E!.

After that interview, Henry is probably thinking that he might have made a mistake coming to the US.

Morning show demographics probably care less about sports than any – so they have to relate to him in other ways. I know it’s not his job but it would have been good if Henry was prepped to tailor his elevator speech to that audience. In this situation the idiots in morning television will never do more than a skin-deep job in prepping for that interview.

Exactly. If MLS doesn’t take itself seriously enough to book genuine stars like Henry on shows whose hosts have at least a tiny clue, or at least take the time to get a detailed press packet to the completely clueless – color by numbers, in this case – what’s the point?

I admire your ability to take any tangential issue and weave it as a reason why we should all support your personal crusade to anglicize our soccer system when their system is designed for a country whose land area is smaller than many U.S. states.

Excuse #907345 why we just can’t have proper soccer leagues: We’re too big. Maybe it’s time to stop making excuses for MLS falling behind? Maybe giving the US pro sports establishment the ability to carve up fiefdoms for themselves is giving them too much credit? Maybe the country is ready for something outside of the mold, no matter how much MLS and their NFL and NBA minders want to protect their precious closed league entitlements?

The country is not too big, nor the market too small, nor the reporters too fluffy, for real soccer in the USA.

PATHETIC!! Soccer is a world game. I live in america and these foolish american think their MLS, NBA, ice hockey nonsense is the real deal? Really? Then when the NY Yankees win the season title they claim to be “WORLD CHAMPIONS”….You dumb fags only america plays that retarded sport how can u claim to be world champs? Americans from the ones i meet even at work are one of the most ignorant people you will ever run across. They barely know what goes on outside their country. They think the world is america. They have poor foreign relations and are unliked by half the globe. And for them to say they dont care about what people think is a sign to show how foolish they are. Sad people to be honest. Americans think they own the world or are better. That Eli Manning cunt who posted a comment on this is probably a black guy like me but the difference is i am not a lost soul and i know where i come from. Am african and i know my people. While u on the other hand was stolen, put on a ship and beaten up and have no clue where u come from yet u speak with all this american pride. A land stolen from the red indians this place is filled up with foreigners. They make this place. So americans really need to learn how to respect other nations and races. And if u ask what am doing here, i am just training for my career, if i had a chance to pick another place to train, i would pick it. Just dont currently have the means to do so.

If you are African you’d realize that your people sold your own people to nations all over the world, therefore changing their identity,DNA, and language. Nothing more than just sellouts, and America if you hate it so much GTFO, there are other places to train, in Europe. Your the same kind who eats the food here provided by Americans and is also protected by through military, you should shut up you ignorant fool. As for the Henry interview, he had enough class to finish the dumb interview even though he probably should have walked out.

LMAO! that wwas freakin hilarious. those FOX people have no ideas in their heads about anything. zero. FOX NEWS really does cater to the lowest of the lowest common denominator and then divide the sum by the average Sarah Palin supporter/respecter. how do those people even have jobs? as for the concept of doing their ‘homework’ before an interview…ha…they might need to spend an evening on planet earth once before grasping onto that concept.
Hosts Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly are complete buffoons as they prove time and again.
WELCOME TO THE USA TITI. IT MAY ONLY GET WEIRDER FROM NOW ON.
Cheers 🙂

I agree that anyone in the US who isn’t following the game is not going to know the first thing about the game or Henry.
But and its a big but, though informed & enlighted people know not to trust Fox News, TV anchorpersons are supposed to be informed about who they are interviewing. Usually, they are. Whether they do the research themselves or have an unpaid intern do it doesn’t matter. 3 minutes reading his Wiki page would have provided them with some background. In this case Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelley chose to remain ignorant and lost out on a great opportunity to introduce one of the world’s finest footballers to the American people. Active ignorance such as this shameful and in no way reflects on Americans as a people. It reflects on Fox News. Had it been the Today show or The View or Ellen DeGeneres etc, the interview would have been performed properly.
On the other hand it was funny to watch those two clowns trip over themselves. And it was brilliant to watch Thierry roll with it without so much as rolling his eyes. Class act that Frenchman.

I thought interview was fine. Stuff like that will happen and its good to get the word out on as many stations as possible. What I don’t understand is why people are wearing their scarves in the hot Summer. There’s something pretentious about the bigwig corporate types dressed in suits with scarves. Put a game Red Bull Shirt on or a Red Bull Polo, or something.

folks we have Guiseppe Rossi on the show tomorrow. We will be asking him why he chose to play for Italy, where his future lies amongst other things. You can check us out at http://www.beyondthepitch.net, you can get our podcast on itunes just keyword search ‘beyond the pitch’. Thursday we will have PSV Eindhoven manager Fred Rutten, Friday will be Uli Hessler, next week we will have Lee Sharpe (ex manchester united) Ahmet Guvener (secretary general for the Turkish FA along with RTE’S Eamon Dunphey. Drop us a line and let us know what you think.

This interview was not that bad. Actually, they messed up a little since he is a basketball player. At leat they did not confused him with that volleyball player from Uruguay. I love the MLS. Go LA Galaxy.

i find the most hilarious part was when the station repeatedly juxtaposing henry, with the clip of him scoring the controversial handball goal against ireland to help france qualify for the 2010 world cup. now that was a blow out. hahaha

Did that woman really ask him, “so you’re French – but where are you from originally?” !!!!!!?????!!! I died a thousand deaths of second hand embarrassment. She’s one to talk about racism in Europe – she should have said here its more veiled and implied just like my stupid, narrow minded question. Atleast she didn’t come out and say, “you have black people in France?”. Horrible, horrible interview.

Nothing has went rite for Henry since that handball they kept showing over and over again ha! its probally the only clip of him and only time they heard of him as it was news all over the world! KARMA HENRY… KARMA

Blimey, that was stunning, the bimbo couldn’t even pronounce the great man’s first name! No wonder Thierry has expressed a desire to return to The Arsenal at the first opportunity. I am a cockney, londoner, and when I lived in Queens the amount of times I was asked which part of Australia I came from really really annoyed me lol.

this is an epic fail! couldnt resist posting it on my blog! 😛 the comments thread makes it all the more interesting! I laughed my guts out on “Which is why “fagball” will always be the best game in the world, even if your inbred nation of retards dont like it.”! WAY TO GO FOOTIE LOVERS! FAGBALL FTW! all haters need to STFU!

This is absurd! How can a national TV allow those people without the knowledge of football/soccer to interview Henry? Its a national disgrace to the 25Million who watched the WC final for those posers to say Henry just won WC…what a pathetic commendation?!

To top it all, they asking him if he comes to US because of Europe racism, oh my…What an idea-less question was that? Im sure Henry will be asking himself what nonsense has he got himself to for coming to America.

it’s a local NY radio station and NY, for being a big city, is very insular and tend to only like the things they like.

On top of that, these type of shows are the bastion of the uninformed. To tell you the truth, it probably wasn’t a good idea for TH14 to go there or to go by himself so when presented with the shit-brained idiocy, someone would be there to connect the dots for them

Just because 25 million of us watched the world cup doesn’t mean 25 million of us understood what we were watching.

Why didn’t they just play violins while he was talking about racism? As he said himself, he played in Europe for 15 years, so if it was that bad he should have got on his bike sooner. He’s just playing the “woe is me” card, “is it because je suis black?”, trying to garner sympathy for himself.
He’s been doing that since November, trying to distract attention from his cheating handball incident against Ireland. If he wants to talk about racism, why not mention the racist comment his black compatriot, Lassana Diarra, made to an Irish player in the playoff which they won by virtue of disgracing themselves and their nation?
He was born in a racist country, he transferred to Spain, an openly racist country where they make monkey noises when black players get the ball. Meanwhile, he turned his back on Arsenal and England, where he was respected, loved and prosperous. Why? For money. Now he’s in a country which has not got the best record as far as racial harmony is concerned. Why is he there? For money. All four of those countries have subjugated people in days gone by. If he wants to make a point about racism, why not quit the game?
This sort of kiss and tell attitude, complaining about racism as soon as he’s left, doesn’t help anyone.

What’s this umm business? Are you meditating? He should have just said it wasn’t an issue, and showed some respect to the legions of brilliant fans throughout Europe, who have supported him with genuine adulation, and who made him what he is today. Do you not think he had been briefed prior to the interview? He could have downplayed that question. Lots of other players have suffered much more racism than he has. Talk to Viv Anderson – a pillar of a man. You’re super-sensitive that’s your problem. I’m not even a part of your stupid ‘did you vote Republican or for Obama?’ games. There’s another level called ‘objectively analyse every situation as it arises’. Yourself and your persecution complex. A cheat can be of any colour.

all he did was answer the question and IMO did downplay it as it was the interviewer who, obviously picking up on a single item in an article and wanting to sound enlightened, tried to frame it as the huge problem and overarching reason he came here. Something you seem to want to attribute to Henry.

the bias in your comments is palpable. he’s an athlete, not a philosopher.

You don’t have to be a philosopher to realise that you owe a debt of gratitude to the fans who’ve cheered your name, rather than a sideswipe comment about all the racism, boohoo . I attend English football games on a weekly basis, and never see any racism shown to players. Fans hold themselves to a very high standard when it comes to matters of race. Any other conceivable insult is fair game. I’ve no bias, but I don’t like to see a whole continent villified as being racist, when it’s actually quite the opposite. Where are you from sucka99?

He couldn’t say it’s not an issue because it actually is an issue in Europe, just like it is in the USA. The best he could do would be to downplay it. It doesn’t matter if other players got worse treatment, there shouldn’t be any ‘treatments’ at all. He should stop playing football so he can make a point about racism? What bollocks.

It’s not a perfect world, so therefore you’ll find racist tendencies in the minds of practically everyone on the planet. People like to look outwards and are delighted to point the finger at someone who is putting those thoughts into action, be it verbally or physically. However, the reason for that is because, on some level, they’re aware that some ugliness exists deep within their hearts. People love to look down on other people.
Having said all that, clubs throughout Europe, and particularly in England, are very strict on fans who racially abuse player. If he still thinks it’s an issue, yes, why not make a stand and quit this ‘terrible’ game that’s paying his wages? Lilian Thuram took it upon himself to make huge efforts to combat racism. FIFA and UEFA and every other organisation are quite capable of effectively dealing with these issues, and it’s at the point now where soccer is uniting people, rather than dividing them. Little snide-swipe comments from Henry don’t help at all, and they just go to show how low he’s sunk to in his career.
He drew the enmity of the world upon himself when he handled the ball against Ireland. Not so much for the action itself, but for the way he tried to weasel out of it, and his lack of an upfront apology. He then went to South Africa and was part of a squad that tarnished the name of football, not to mention an entire nation, meanwhile the fans, like me, are picking up the tab (paying for TV subscriptions, jerseys etc). Now he’s high-tailed it to the USA for a holiday, to escape the scrutiny of the press and fans, and has the nerve to depict Europe as a hotbed of racism.
The Henry of a few years ago would have had the backbone to realise not to entertain such criticisms of Euopean fans, but as I say, he’s at a low point in his life.

That was indeed a nightmare of an interview. You could have replaced those two hosts with bobble-heads and they would have made more sense.

I’m surprised:
– the station didn’t run sub-titles whenever Thierry Henry spoke.
– Greg Kelly said “Thanks Henry” instead of “Thanks Thierry”. Obviously he got confused over which name was a surname. Thierry should have said, “You’re welcome Kelly.” But Monsieur Henry has too much class.

After realizing that he was being interviewed by a couple of clods, Thierry should have conducted the rest of the interview in French. LOL

Wow, within the first minute of the video I’m completely embarrassed, it opens up with Scotto saying “now some things don’t translate, so be careful”, Greg Kelly sounds like he’s almost asking Thierry that RBNY is the local soccer team, “right?” and that whole “you just won the world cup” comment….wow, her producers probably said he was a World Cup winner and she assumed it was this past cup.

Also, am I the only one that feels like I’m watching that SNL skit with Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri with this crap….

Jesus, I’m Irish and I hate Henry but how many times are they gonna show that reel of the handballs? Out of all the great goals he scored they only have one two reels of him? One holding a Red Bull scarf! Put some effort into your work. “You just won the World Cup” Classic ignorance

It was a better interview than the blogger’s commentary suggested, but it was still relatively bad. even giving them the benefit of not being a sports related show, they showed a significant lack of knowledge or research in soccer. As for the looped image of the handball, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and guess that they already had that clip in their collection and therefore decided to use it instead of going to an archive and finding another one.

1) FOXNY fired some of the background people who research and prep the faces about what questions to ask, OR
2) The faces just didn’t prepare.

Some of the wild acting and joking to me implies a lack of preparation since it seemed pointless and only meant to kill time. Where are you going to live? Bronx cheer? Etc. etc. However, they did ask some questions (just won world cup, racism, when does the season start) that implies bad research. I hope the faces aren’t doing the research… faces are almost always dumb… at every local network.

I do respect Handry more after this interview (sorry Ireland) and I just love how quick he was onto what type of interview this would be. At the 8 second mark he gives his handler a look that says, “This will be one of those type of interviews.”

Oh come on guys don’t be so hard on these two or your country. As stated this was just a daytime chat show – it had no pretence of being an in depth interview. Their knowledge of football may have been limited and to start with such an obvious gaffe was not great but I have seen much worse interviews. At least they invited him on the show – slowly, slowly catchy monkey.

I always love the bs rap that Americans love a blow out and high scores. The NFL game that all gridiron fans agree brought pro football to the mainstream american concsious was the Colts-Giants OT 14-7 championship from ’58. I also recently read an article where baseball fans were polled and asked what moment in baseball history would they most like to attend and by far the biggest winner was Don Larson’s World Series perfect game from ’56. This game ended 2-0 and ironically is famous because literally nothing happened on offense! I’m taking my son to Yankee Stadium tomorrow night and I’m sure it will be a typical night atnthe ballpark – lots of food and drink, with few people in the stadium actually watching the game. That’s what Americans truly love.

Okay, Fox Charlotte, in our humble little media market, has an equivalent show to this called “Fox News Rising”. It’s a quirky little local talk show that attracts around 7,000 viewers per day and has gone though more hosts than Greg Kelly has bottles of hair product.

In 2006 they interviewed the Charlotte Eagles, our USL Second Division team, on the verge of the World Cup in Germany. Beth Troutman, the then host, who was born and raised in Concord, North Carolina — yes, where the NASCAR track is — that cosmopolitan soccer hotbed, knew 50-times more about the Eagles than they knew about RBNY or Henry. Beth isn’t a soccer person, just a half decent journalist who did her shit the night before.

LOL what a joke. Talk about amateur broadcasting. How does an interview not know anything about the subject they are conducting an interview on? Does anyone else not find it weird his name is Scotto??? I guess thats what you get from Fox!

Great post, but if we’re picking fights, I’ve a question…
“To have one of the biggest soccer stars in the world on your show but then not even give him the courtesy of asking intelligent questions is a travesty.”
Of what is it a travesty, which means grotesque imitation? A travesty of a proper interview?
Or did you mean tragedy?

Im sorry but am I the only person who thinks the American interviewers aren’t the only prats in this interview??!! I mean the lady does start herself off with the most brain dead question ever “so you just won the world cup right?” (yes love 8 years ago) i.e highlighting to real football fans that she hasnt a fuckin clue! But its a morning show in America so u have to excuse their knowledge of european football until this statement is made…

” Their wont be as much racism as their is in european football”…again im sorry did i miss something in your 8 years at arsenal, Juventus and Barca and Monaco? At barca u were highly respected and at Arsenal you were made a God!(lil credit due to your fans there) I do understand you encountered your fair share of problems as does every non national player playing in a foreign league but it was England (Arsenal under Wenger) were you became the player you are today and I think you (Thierry) hit your European fans with a bit of a low blow in this interview with your comments especially after your poor show of fair play with the Irish in the qualifiers and the way you conducted yourself as a senior player at the world cup finals.

lol i believe when people address racism in soccer in europe, the racism usually comes from opposing fans not your own fans. I doubt any Arsenal fan in Highbury was saying the things that Spain’s coach Aragones was live on TV.

and the last few times I’ve been to games in the states, I haven’t heard any racism directed toward players (though I must say I haven’t been to Mississippi St vs Ole Miss so maybe …) I feel pretty confident in saying that there will be less racism in the stands in MLS than there is in the venues that Henry played in Europe.

The entire country revered him sucka99 – you really haven’t a clue how the game works in England. We, as fans, generate a huge industry, through TV revenues, newspaper sales, ticket sales, mercahndise sales, you name it. Of course there was no racism directed at Henry from his own Arsenal fans, but there was also none directed at him from any other fans. He was regarded with near saintly status, as a player who lit up the Premiership, at the same level (or even higher) as Dennis Bergkamp, Eric Cantona, Christiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Alan Shearer, Roy Keane and Didier Drogba (though the first 4 are more skillful than the latter, therefore are possibly given more appreciation).
Henry said it himself that he fell in love with the fans in England. Fans of opposing teams would shake his hand on the street. If there’s less racism at MLS games in America, it’s because no-one happens to have any passion among the three people attending the match. I suspect that your inability to accept that Europeans would want to defend themselves from being slandered as racists, and by yoour statement that ‘I feel pretty confident in saying that there will be less racism in the stands in MLS than there is in the venues that Henry played in Europe’, that you may be a racist.

You’re not the only one Paul, everything you say is spot on, but you’re the only one who thinks France won the world cup in 2002! I agree that it was a low blow to insult the English fans like that, and I think it’s because Henry has sunk to a low point in his career and life. Once he gets playing again, he might start thinking clearer.

Here’s the thing: Henry spent a long time in England and he got used to the local way to refer to Europe. Perhaps UK people will correct me but from what I heard, when they say “Europe” they mean “the continent” thus excluding themselves since they live on an island. Because I’m sure it was Spain specially where he heard most of the racist abuse.

Well, when you refer to European football, you have to reaslise that English teams have dominated the latter stages of the Champions league for the last 5 years (bar this one). When the term ‘European’ is used, it pretty much blankets a lot of people who would not like to be called racist. You’re speculating as to what he meant, and also as to where he heard the most racism. It could well have been France or Italy

– It would be just as bad if the interviewers would start sucking up to him because he’s a famous football player, like the celebrity-obsessed Huff-po would do. Over there, they would kiss his ass as if it were made of gold or platinum.

– Nothing like a dumb local FOX interview to bring out the anti-Americans, hey? What’s your problem? Angry because he chose to play for Red Bull this time? Hey, sorry, but he had a choice and he chose to come here. The same goes with Ljungberg. I’ve seen clips of Henry playing in that soccer pitch in Chinatown for a charity game. I can see why he would like it in NYC. So he got rolled over by a bunch of airheads on a local station. $hit happens! Deal!

– Would you suck-ups please stop apologizing for every mediatard interview as if a war crime happened?! What, you think you would get oral sex from chick from London if you play “the good American” long enough? Haters are haters no matter the situation. Never going to please them so stop trying!

Ha, you’re right tlas – these metrosexual nonces would sell their souls to lick out a piece of herpes-ridden cunt : ‘hey baybee look at me! I’ve a diagonal line shaved into my eyebrow, I’m standing in a B-Boy stance and I’m defending Henry cuz he got mad skillz, so by extension, I got mad skillz. But if you don’t want none, that’s ok, because I’m so in love myself, it’s scary ‘.
Those TV presenters are getting a small wage by comparison to the interviewee, and the whole thing actually wasn’t that bad. I’m sure Henry enjoys being among charismatic people who’ll basically blurt out inaccurate things and not really care. The likes of Jamie Redknapp fawning all over him probably turned his stomach.
America is a great culture, and the proof of the pudding is that Henry chose to go there. He might have set that pitch in China-town alight, but I took a piss on it-so who’s the really winner Thierry? With your piss-stained Nikes.

The issue is not whether they care about the sport or are even interested in it, the issue is not doing a little homework (15 mins on a wiki page).
I’m sure if one of your big NFL stars came over to England, no one would no who he was, or even give a shit who he was but I’m sure the the presenters would do a little better job than this:

1. Get his name right
2. know whether he won a super bowl this year or 12 years ago
3. Not asking him if he is going to strip off to get noticed.
4. If he was black, presume that he was not born in the U.S and must have moved to the U.S from some African country

There is a difference between not giving a shit and just being a retard who does zero homework and tries to blag their way through it.

Who’s has been the biggest or one of the biggest stars in the NFL over the last 10-15 years? I have no idea but once you have answered that question, imagine him getting asked the questions in this interview and what you would think of the people asking those questions.

Tom Brady has been interviewed in Europe and they knew who he was. Here, no one gives a shit who this little black frenchie is. You think people started to like your little sport when beckham came here? Haha, it was all 12 year old girls who wanted to slob his knob who went to the games. That’s it.

No real people like your sport. It’s a sport for little kids and girls. That’s it. The fact that the rest of the world likes it shows that they are centuries behind us. That is nothing new. USA is better than the rest, that’s why we enjoy better sports than you losers.

Bit like gay sport of baseball then isn’t it. Played by girls in our primary school and called rounders.
Only difference we have little girls playing it, you have big fat pricks playing it and 40,000 dumb asses in the crowd eating hotdogs in the crowd trying to get as fat as the pricks they’re are watching.

Tom Bradley, I don’t know who the F**k he is, and I watch sky sports 24/7. However little interest there is in the REAL football over there, it’s a damn sight more than the interest than your fat F**k version in this country.
Your game is nothing but a pussy version of Rugby, why don’t they take all that padding off, and those helmets, game for a bunch of fat F***ing girls.

Rounders is a game played between two teams each alternating between batting and fielding. The game originated in England and has been played there since Tudor times, with the earliest reference being in 1745 in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it is called “baseball”. It is a striking and fielding team game, which involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat and then running around four bases in order to score.[1][2] Especially amongst girls, the game is popular in the UK and Ireland for schoolchildren.[3]

Above is a little wiki version of America’s pass time, Personally I like bit that says’ Especially amongst girls, the game is popular in the UK and Ireland for schoolchildren’.

Bruce, while I don’t completely agree with it, that comment is priceless. You’re probably dead right: at the highest level, soccer is full of bitches these days, as our friend TH14 has proven, and fans are becoming just as woeful as well. Bringing their girlfriends to the games, making it into a fashion outing. I’ve grown up watching soccer, but it’s really turning into a shambles these days.

Directed at Bruce:
I love you soccer-hater guys; we’ve got them over here too! You go all of this way out of your own way to stick the boot into a sport you profess not to care for…you tool!
Soccer/football fans in countries like Australia and America believe in ‘Manifest destiny’, I’m sure Bruce with your probably rudimentary grasp of education you’ve heard this phrase before, but it’s not in regard to ‘owning and populating an entire continent from sea to shining sea’, this is the belief that soccer/football has a foothold and will continue to grow and grow until it gains the level of respect that it rightfully deserves. Get used to it soccer haters, the only sport that enables people from around the world to talk together in a common language is in your country and its not only here to stay, its growing. Don’t make the mistake of linking MLS popularity with the popularity of the sport in general. Even though both are growing, MLS doesn’t just have to compete with the so-called big 4 it has to compete with FMF, EPL, Serie A and other world leagues around the world.
“First they ignore us, then they laugh at is, then they fight us, and then we win!”

Rugby doesn’t allow the type of tackling that gridiron football allows – nor does it ever have anyone in as vulnerable a position as a quarterback, punt returner, or wide receiver. If they were and played without padding someone would die.

they are different games. period.

and evidence of games resembling baseball or rounders or even football for that matter have been found in many civilizations

What are you on about, your game baseball is Rounders, it came from England. Just because Americans are so dumb that they actually believe it’s their game or they invented it does not mean it is.

Did you read the wiki page I put up? Look out for the bit that says 1745 and a book calling it baseball. Have a look at the rules of Rounders and see if they sound familiar.

‘The game originated in England and has been played there since Tudor times, with the earliest reference being in 1745 in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it is called “baseball”.’

Baseball = little girls Rounders
American Football = pussy Rugby

Lol, Americans don’t invent sports, they take them, sometimes change them and then call them their own.
It’s only because people are so F***ing dumb there and have no idea what’s going on outside of America that they can say things like ‘Baseball, The American Sport’ and keep a straight face.

Again – the tackles _allowed_ in rugby are never those where the player is in a vulnerable position. These videos show illegal hits. I can show you gridiron video where some dude swung his helmet in a fight. But I’ve never heard of anyone having a collapsed lung, ruptured spleen, or cranial fractures from rugby. or becoming paralyzed.

Was this really that bad? They clearly wouldn’t know a football (saccer ball) from a hole in the ground but other than the “just won the world cup” bit, it didn’t seem too bad. Landon Donovan on the Regis show was much more cringeworthy IMO.

@tlas “Nothing like a dumb local FOX interview to bring out the anti-Americans, hey? What’s your problem? Angry because he chose to play for Red Bull this time? ”

No offence but if Henry was still at the top of his game, he wouldn’t be going to New York. He only scored 4 goals for Barcelona last season.

Wow, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch that as painful as it was..I know first hand Americans that not only know the world exists beyond the sea to shining sea, One of the things I love about football is it has the ability to broaden ones horizons, i think over time as more and more Americans get really into soccer.football, their horizons will expand as a result. It is good to see that its not just our morning TV shows that are filled with brainless idiots…thank you very much for exporting that part of your culture to Australia. I look to MLS as a league in a new(football) world country like our A-League but with 300m potential fans instead of our 21m and of course you’ve been operating for 15 years now, we kick off our 6th season in 2 weeks, there are a lot of lessons we down here can learn from you lot up there especially in dealing with a crowded sports market place largely indifferent or even hostile to the efforts to establish the world game.I wish we had a bit more money to compete with you for the Henry’s of the world, if he likes NYC, I think it’d be a good bet to say he’d like Sydney too . I for one wish y’all well. See you in Brazil in 4 years(I hope)

Thanks very much for your comments. I’m looking forward to watching Henry in his first match as a Red Bull. Let’s hope the other 10 players don’t just look at him in awe and not forget to do their roles.

oh Jim is great. If all we had to do was sit there and parade our high tops, anyone of us would suffer through it if it was lining our pocket. And we’d say whatever is the populist thing to say if we were Jim Rome, coz that would line our pockets too. Gotta use your ‘ead mate

LOL, you soccer fans are something else. Especially the international ones. Granted, FOXNY did a bad interview with this soccer guy you’re all a fan of (I’m not a fan of soccer, being from the U.S., so I don’t know who the hell he is nor do I really care, but you all say he’s a great soccer star so I’ll take your word for it). Try to remember, though, that this is an interview taking place on a FOX affliate, and even if that weren’t the case, this is the United States people – no matter how many different ways you wish it weren’t the case, soccer is a third-rate sport here. People are still talking about the whole LeBron James fiasco – are they even bothering to remember one thing about the World Cup? So an allowance needs to be made for the fact that these interviewers obviously knew nothing about who this guy was. Dumb interviewers or not, this is still the U.S., and we’re not soccer fans. So how the hell would they or we know anything at all about this stuff? Then, one guy comes here and classlessly rips on soccer for no good reason. And all you soccer defenders (especially you foreign ones) justifiable start ripping on him, but then you shamefully attack American sport in as bad or worse ways than he attacked soccer. You want a reason why Americans will never fall in love with soccer? Retarded, ill-thought out reactions like yours.

Btw, IMO soccer is pretty boring. But that’s just my opinion. To each his own, right?

My fellow football fans, you do not do the sport any favours by calling it by that ridiculous word. Even the woman in this vid called Henry a football player. Please stand up for the name of our sport. I see the football haters are here en masse, but many who are defending football are only degrading it by calling it something else.

The 1st step in defending the honour of our game is by stressing the fact that this sport is the one and only Football. Handegg is not football. FOOTBALL is football. Stuff that down the yanks’ throat until they can no longer breathe.

Stand up for the name, then the rest will follow. If you call it by the lollipop name, the “fagball” ridicule will be deserved.

Rosanna Scotto, is the biggest idiot on television. Her opinions and views on things are by far the most idiotic of all tv personalities. That’s what you get when you put a dumb housefrau hosting a tv show. The woman doesn’t pick up a newspaper in her free time. Honestly reminds me of Sarah Palin. I like Greg Kelly, but again this guy is way too comfortable on that show, and it shows sometimes in his bad jokes and goofiness.
This is a good example of why the rest of the world makes fun of americans. They made it seem like soccer was a sport from another planet dismissing the fact that it is one of the fastest growing sports here, holding a huge fan base.

this interview wasn’t a complete bombshell like the article made it out to be..however as a huge soccer fan it was pretty bad to hear the hosts say some of the things they did like how soccer sucks and other ignorant comments…but to be honest im not really surprised because americans dont like soccer yet and things like this will continue to happen until the beautiful game gets more credit and audiences….smh

That was awful… but also strangely hilarious and sad at the same time..
I think that If I didn’t live in NY and had never seen Scotto and Kelly I would have expected a “punked” type of ending with someone jumping out and yelling, “gotcha!” or “haha!” at the end.
If the handball celebration clip that was played over and over again during the interview had also been shown to Henry at the same time it would have been truly perfect.

i am not the biggest fan of this program,least of all rossana scotto,but to be fair,this is a morning show with a certain tempo inherent. henry,quite frankly,sounded as if he just rolled out of bed. did he think he was going to be interviewed by legitimate “journalists”? somebody screwed up. i’d have a sit down with publicist,if indeed henry was led to believe he was going to something serious. i totally empathize with the issue of euro-racism,though henry,just because it is perhaps more discreet here,does not mean it is less virulent.

i am beginning to hate MLS. I couldn’t recount how many times people have said it’s not Major League Soccer it’s Minor league Soccer. New Jersey’s aren’t made every year and u guy want to be like the EPL? It can’t be possible like that. MLS just sucks every single day. And Don Garber get the F**k out of the role of commissioner. You suck!!!!!!!!. You want to create rivalry by creating conferences. Who does that in Europe ?